Saturday, July 19th, 2008
Ok, I just took a few quick sample photos with my new Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W300 digital camera. The first one I am going to show you was taken on one of the lowest settings. Basically, you can take poster-sized (print quality) photos with this camera. I set it to the 3MB setting, which is one of the smallest print quality settings.
Take a look…
Next, I tried out the “Burst shooting mode” on Michael the cat. There are two sequences here. The first one is where he is pretty much laying there and the second one is where he is biting me.
I would say that both the quality and the “Burst shooting mode” are very good.
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Saturday, July 19th, 2008
A few days ago, I noticed something strange happening to my Sony Cyber-shot 4.1 mega pixel camera. It was kind of the same thing that happens to all my Sony digital cameras after a few years…I had to start smacking the side of it to make the display correct itself. Before I smacked it, I noticed horozontal lines across the display, and strangely enough, in the photographs themsleves.
Now, if you have been following this blog for any amount of time, you certainly know how fond I am of taking pictures. With this in mind, I walked over to the wall and saw the writing on it. A few moments later, I was on CircuitCity.com ordering a new camera.
It really doesn’t take me very long to do these types of things. I basically visited the camera section and narrowed it down to show just Sony cameras. I like Sony cameras because they plug in easily with a USB cord. I looked at the 12+ mega pixel cameras and saw that only point and shoot one on the page. It’s the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W300 13.6-Megapixel Digital Camera. I read a few reviews and bought it.
I recived the package today and opened it. One of the first things I noticed is that, while it does use a USB cord to connect to the computer, the connection that fits the camera is not a traditional USB connection. This was a little disappointing because I really like to have things that use USB cords. I don’t want to have to worry about forgetting this special cord when I am traveling. Oh well.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W300 13.6-Megapixel Digital Camera - front view.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W300 13.6-Megapixel Digital Camera - side view.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W300 13.6-Megapixel Digital Camera - rear view.
I installed the battery and turned the camera on. Then, I took about three pictures. I tried to take a forth picture, but was notified that there was no more memory on the camera. Good thing there was a deal at Circuit City where they gave away a 2GB Sandisk memory stick with the purchase of this camera. Also, the problem was that the camera was set to the highest quality. You can imagine how large the file sizes of the photos on a 13.6 mega pixel camera can be. If you can’t, they are about 4MB each.
I installed the 2GB memory stick and took a few more photos. I then plugged the camera in to the USB cord and opened the folder on the computer. Oddly, I could only see the photos on the memory stick (mass storage). I deleted them. Then, I took the memory stick out of the camera. I re-plugged the camera in and saw the first photos I took (internal storage). I tried to delete those photos from the folder in the computer and it wouldn’t let me. I learned that if you are using internal storage on a digitial camera, you can only delete the photos by using the camera’s delete function. If you are using mass storage, you can delete them from the computer.
There are many features on this camera, such as:
- 13.6 megapixels
- 3x optical zoom (which people don’t think is all too great for the price)
- 2.7” LCD display
- Dual image stabilizers (which I need because I have a bad habit of taking blurry photos)
- Face detection (detects up to 8 faces and focuses on each one of them)
- 9-point auto focus
- Smile Shutter mode (the reviews say this really works)
- Dual aspect ratios (normal or widescreen)
- HD slide show with music
- Image optimization
- Easy shooting mode
- In-camera image enhancements
- Scene modes (this camera actually has a description on the screen when you change modes - this is good because I really never knew what any of them meant)
- Burst shooting mode (up to 100 shots consecutively at almost two shots per second)
- Shoot movies
- 15MB of internal memory
If all these features work as described, you will start noticing higher quality photos in my blog posts.
Peace out.
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Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
Well, not really. I really hope not. But, there is a lot that we don’t know about ourselves.
I was just going over one of my websites (BlogLeeg.com) and there was an interesting article about some improvements people can make to their blogs. Some of them were bogus, but one of them caught my eye.
Think about it…people are at your blog to read about you. Your readers want to know what’s going on in your life and your world. Maybe, just maybe, they should know what you look like. The suggestion that I read said to put a photo of yourself in one of your columns or on your “About” page. I thought that was a spiffy idea, so I put up twelve. I tend to overdo things sometimes.
So, if you visit my “About” page, you can see all my pretty pictures. As I was posting these photos, I couldn’t help but wonder f I am getting weird looking in my old age. I try to stay somewhat normal, but time does take it’s toll…nah.
I still can’t figure out if I look more French, Irish, Italian or Hungarian.
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Sunday, April 20th, 2008
I read that the Minnewaska State Park is on fire over at Paul’s blog this morning. I had already planned on going up to Stone Ridge again today to do a little food shopping, so I thought I would grab a photo. Things really didn’t look too bad…I guess most of it’s out. There was another place to get a better shot, but we already had some that were ok.
From what I read, the fire has already burned 2,300 acres.
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Thursday, April 10th, 2008
Today, Laura and I had to bring Holly the dog to the vet. She had to have her teeth cleaned and some minor surgery. The vet had to put Holly under (not down, as Rob mistakenly thought today), so we had to burn about six hours of the day. Since we live an hour away from the vet, we decided to head up to Millbrook, NY for a visit. It got to be about 68 degrees and sunny today, so it was the perfect day for a little road trip.
Millbrook is a nice little town in Dutchess County. It has some farms and a nice little main street. I’m sure many people would like it if you brought them there. Believe it or not, I actually know someone who grew up in Millbrook. It must’ve been fun.
Anyway, The first thing we did was to cruise down Main Street. We parked the car and walked down to a little park at the end of the road. Paul would know the name of it. I’m sure he’ll write a comment for me.
I gotta say, it is a very nice park indeed. We walked up the zigzag sidewalk and then back down. Of course, I had to stop to take a few pictures.
There was a nice bridge over a small pond. The pond waterfall wasn’t running though. I am going to write someone a letter about that.
I call this the “chair of thought.” I sat in the chair of thought for about 30 seconds…just long enough for Laura to take this photo of me. I wanted everyone to know exactly how smart I can really look.
After we were done with the park, we walked up and down the main street again to check out all the little shops. I think the town is quite content with itself. Everyone looked very satisfied. That’s a good feeling if you live in a little town. We found a good restaurant to eat in, but they weren’t ready to serve until noon, so we decided to go to the Trevor Zoo at the Millbrook School. This has been on our agenda for some time and we figured it would be a great thing to do before eating lunch.
On the way to the zoo, I pulled over to look at a horse. Then, I thought to myself that a picture of the nearby farm would be a good thing to show my loyal readers. That would be the picture above.
As we drove down the road, I realized that we were coming upon the Millbrook School itself. I had no idea that it was a fancy private school. I was picturing those plastic slides like they have in the backs of some nursery schools. Um, not so much. After we parked the car, we took a stroll up the road because I saw some purple flowers I wanted to take a picture of.
Now, I didn’t know what to expect with this zoo. I even went as far as telling Laura that I didn’t want to go because I feared it would be just some pig in someone’s backyard. She expressed to me how important it was for us to go, so I agreed. This is the second time that I was wrong about someplace and she was right. The first time was Block Island. Boy was I wrong about that one. You know, it really hurts a guy’s ego to be wrong twice in a relationship. Good thing it was only twice.
As we walked up, we saw a nice waterfall and a bridge. It was the entrance to Trevor Zoo. Oh, how neat. It looked much bigger than I thought it would. After we went in, we saw how many animals they had.
They had birds and turkeys…
…and they even had this big bird that wouldn’t put its wings down. I guess he was getting some sun. We also saw rabbits and lemurs, a deer and a bunch of other stuff. There weren’t many people there, so it was really pleasurable. That, mixed with the nice weather was really making this a day after all.
This is just a great last shot I took of the Millbrook School from the Trevor Zoo. Obviously, I am on the other side of the pond.
After we left the zoo, we headed back into town for that lunch I was telling you about. We ate a nice meal and headed out to our next destination…the Millbrook Vineyards & Winery. At this point, it was about 1:30PM, so we were spreading things out nicely.
We rolled up to the winery with some wine tasting in mind. Good thing in was a Thursday in April, because there were only a few people there.
We paid $14 for the both of us to taste seven wines. We also got to keep the wine glasses we drank out of. To follow our tradition, we bought a bottle of wine before we left. I guess that’s what people do. I think we got a Cabernet. I am not such a huge fan of that type of wine, but Laura seemed interested, so again, I agreed. I know, I know…yes, I am a catch.
I thought I would throw those last three shots in there. I had to do something while we were waiting for the tasting guy. Besides, I was trying to show off my “angles” to my lady.
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Sunday, March 30th, 2008
I know, for a fact, there is one tool out there that TONS of people need. The reason why so many people need this tool is because so many people are getting into online photo sharing, blogs, websites…
We have a lot of support requests that deal with photo resizing. People can’t upload their photos into our system because they are too large. That is a tough thing to deal with, because many people just don’t understand the many differences and variations of digital images.
Well folks, have I got a tool for you. This tool allows you to resize your photos online. Well, that is “shrink” them online. As I always say, you can’t make a photo bigger (while retaining the same quality), but you sure can shrink it.
So, next time you are trying to put a huge picture into your blog post and are wondering what the heck to do with it, visit this handy tool and shrink it to just the right size.
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Friday, March 28th, 2008
It’s taken a little while to take a picture of this year’s Easter eggs. Laura made these the day after Easter, but I have been kind of busy lately, so I just got to it today.
Now, these aren’t your regular old Easter eggs. These are very special. You will be able to tell that immediately when you look at the photo. There was a unique coloring process to make these eggs look antique and kind of New Englandy. Please, oh please, do not ask me for the process. You will get no where. The secret is in the vault my friends, so don’t waste your time. This is a once in a while event and I am not about to give up the magic of this one.
You see what I am talking about? Now that you are all jealous, go ahead and give it a try yourselves. Let me know what you come up with.
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Monday, September 11th, 2006
So here is another catch up entry. As you can see, I have quite a few. It’s not that I don’t have enough going on these days, it’s just that I have this folder full of pictures looking at me every time I get on the computer. And then, of course, there is that nagging feeling like there is someone out there who enjoys reading these things. I hope so, because I really enjoy writing them.
So here were go…Woodstock, NY…home of the great “Radio Woodstock,” errr, ummm, WDST? (great music) Anyway, yes, so we LOVE to go to Woodstock, even if it just a drive-through on our way south from somewhere north. The village is not large, only a few dense roads and a bunch of country ones. The reason we love it is…well, take a look. I have always wondered what this guy does for money. He probably won the lottery.
Now, I have been to some pretty cool towns in my day (Ithaca, NY), but none quite like this. When we arrived, Laura and I planned to walk around a bit and go into some of the shops and then maybe later on go to lunch. There were TONS of people in town that day. I remember the sidewalks were so full. Everyone was pretty cool and, shall I say, environmentally friendly. Yes, environmentally friendly. There are lots of great shops that like to sell candles, little books of phrases and incense. There are also a few jewelry vendors on the sidewalks that sell beads, silver, etc…
After we did our moseying, we got to the top of the hill, and bumped into a guy trying to pull people around in some sort of a carriage.
This was pretty amusing to watch because the carriage owner couldn’t keep his feet on the ground. Look closely at the photo. He kept bouncing up and down trying the get the thing down. I’m not sure what I would’ve thought if that was me sitting in there preparing for a ride.
So we were watching this guy, checking out some stores to go into and we hear a noise that sounds strikingly like a drum, and then another drum and then another. We turned around to see a crowd of people gathered around the Village Green for a drum circle.
It was a peaceful demonstration. These guys were going at it. I think the greatest thing was how anyone can join in, all they needed was a drum. We saw this guy who looked like he just got off work from an office wailing away on his drum. He was sweating and wailing. I was pretty excited because I thought this stuff was dead after I graduated college.
We have been back to Woodstock many times throughout the years, but never at Christmas. I heard that the village lights up quite nicely around the holidays. This year we’ll visit, and yes, you will see some photos.
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